Of thunders and fears
by elena562734
Summary: One would think the King and Queen of France and Scotland were invincible.


The sky was dark with sinister black clouds and the wind howled, baying like a wolf into the night. The first crack of lightening rent the air and within seconds the boom of the thunder echoed through the castle's walls. Soon the rain fell as if from buckets, cascading like a waterfall from the heavens and Mary shivered from her spot in bed.

"Still afraid of thunderstorms?" Francis whispered in Mary's ears, letting out a little laugh. Since they were children, she hated storms. It made her feel uncomfortable, vulnerable, and if there was one thing the stubborn and headstrong Scottish Queen hated was to feel vulnerable.

"That's not funny." Mary answered her husband, getting closer to him in bed. After eight years of marriage, they knew each other very well. They knew each other fears, weakness and desires but even after all those years, she still hadn't gotten used with sharing her burdens with someone. She had been alone in her struggles for so long that she still found odd when she suddenly left everything out to him, all her worries and dreams.

"I'm sorry." Francis whispered, wrapping his arm tightly around her waist so her back could mold into his chest. "Do you want to talk about it?" He asked as he kissed her hair. Francis knew that Mary would talk as soon as she felt comfortable with it and he didn't like pushing any matters. But he couldn't help but notice how light and free she seemed after they talked, after she left down the walls she had built around her and became just a girl, as she called herself once, confessing herself to her boy. Even that they weren't that young anymore.

"No." She shook her head and buried her body deeper into Francis, clutching his hand in one of hers and the other bringing the silk sheet over her chest. Another thunder echoed through the castle's walls and she closed her eyes, as instantly as Francis brought his mouth to her head and his other hand to her arm, caressing it.

"It's alright. You're safe here. It's just a thunder." Francis whispered and Mary sighed. What would her people, the Scots and the French, think if they saw their Queen afraid of a thunder? It was absolutely ridiculous, how a woman who commanded an army, ordered men and women was afraid of noises coming from the sky. She knew it, the rational part of her mind knew it, but her irrational one ignored it.

"Who would ever think that the Queen of Scotland and France is afraid of thunders? This is ridiculous." Mary whispered as she turned herself on bed and put her head over Francis' chest. She could hear his heartbeat and that small sound was enough to calm her erratic heart.

"Everyone is afraid of something, Mary." Francis whispered, kissing her forehead. "This is not a weakness; it shows that you're human." Mary nodded and buried her face into her husband chest, taking in his scent. Her eyes started to close; her mind fogging with sleep till it was interrupted by another thunder echoing.

"You're the King, make it stop." Mary mumbled, almost asleep, and Francis couldn't help but laugh at his wife.

"I would do anything for you, love. Unfortunately that's not something I can." He whispered, waiting a few seconds for her answer. When he didn't hear it, he looked down to a sleepy figure of Mary, eyes closed and steady breathe and Francis was glad she was finally able to sleep.

**~0~**

The rain continued to fall for the rest of the night, incessantly hitting the walls and the windows of the castle. The thunders stopped till around two in the morning, when it echoed again in the sky and woke some of the residents of the French castle. Another thunder was heard a few minutes later, accompanied by the sound of whispers in front of the door of the King and the Queen's chambers. The door was held open by the large guard in front of it, allowing two figures to slip into the chamber and tip toe till the large bed where and the King and the Queen peacefully slept.

"Papa. Papa." Five year old James whispered as he tried to reach for his father with his small arm. The bed was too tall and his father slept almost in the middle of the bed, impossible for him to reach him. "Papa. Maman. Wake up." He whispered again, not wanting to scare them with too much loud. He again got no response and his sister's grip in his small hand got tighter as another thunder echoed.

"Don't worry, Anne." James turned to his baby sister sucking on her thumb, afraid of the loud noises coming from the sky, as she herself had described when she walked out of her chamber to her brother's, wanting some comfort. "It's alright." He smiled in the dark but the gesture was not enough to calm the scared three year old princess. James was a little afraid too, he had to admit to himself. He had never, in his small existence, seen so much rain. And thunders. But he was the dauphin of France, prince of Scotland; he would someday rule both countries and he couldn't show any signs of fears. Especially of thunders.

"Papa. Maman." Anne whispered this time, playing with the tip of her nightgown. The couple in bed continued to sleep peacefully and the little princess got tired of waiting. Before James could come up with some plan to wake up his parents, Anne started crying, definitely waking them.

"What?" Mary sat up in bed, startled with the sound of cry. Francis did the same, his hand going to his hip as a reflex to reach for his sword. They both analyzed the room to find the source of the sound, till their eyes stopped in the two small figures beside their bed, the bigger reaching for the crying smaller.

"James. Anne." Francis whispered, his mind still foggy with sleep, as he pulled down the covers to reach for his kids. As soon as his feet reached the floor, Mary was already standing by Anne, picking up the crying little girl in her arms and rocking her back and forth.

"What happened? Are you hurt?" She asked James with big eyes, worried, as she traveled her eyes all around her son's small frame to see for herself if they weren't hurt.

"No, mother." The little boy shook his head, as Francis caressed his brown hair just like Mary's. "Anne was scared of the thunder. She came into my chambers but I thought it was better to bring her to you." He told them, choosing his words carefully to sound like the big and responsible brother he felt like, taking care of his little sister as he would one day take care of the French and the Scottish people. He had to admit it was sometimes annoying having to help and take care of Anne, mostly because she wanted to play dolls and tea party while he wanted to play with swords, but he liked to make her happy and he knew that he made his parent's happy when he did that too. Mary smiled and bent down to his level, kissing his forehead.

"You did very well, my son." James smiled to his mother, proud of his actions, as Francis picked him up and put him on his lap.

"Thank you for taking care of your sister, James." The King smiled to his son as he watched his wife calm the small princess in her arms, who had her small arms wrapped around her mother's neck and legs around her waist. "You are a great older brother." James smiled as he yawned and unwittingly lay back in his father's chest.

"It's alright, my darling. You're safe now. There's no need to cry." Mary whispered in Anne's ear as she smiled to Francis from her spot on the room. Anne's cry turned into small sobs, and Francis knew what that look from Mary meant. He knew what all of Mary's looks meant.

"Why don't you two spend the night here with us? I don't think the rain is going to stop soon and I think you would feel better here with us." Francis suggested his children, as he kissed James' head, being watched by Mary. Every time she watched the interaction between her husband and their children she would thank the heavens for Francis being an amazing and caring father, very different from the example he had when he was a children. Not that she ever doubted he would act different, knowing her childhood friend very well.

"Can we?" A red faced Anne raised her head from her mother's shoulder and looked into her father eyes. He smiled to her, still enchanted with the little creatures he and Mary were able to conceive, but before he could answer her, James jumped from his lap, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"I don't need to sleep with you, father. I will be alright in my chambers." Mary quickly looked from James to Francis, not knowing what to answer. James had always been a very mature boy for his age but at that moment, Mary noticed how quickly her little boy was growing up and how much of a big boy he wanted to be for his parents.

"Are you sure, my dear?" Mary raised her eyebrow, not wanting to hurt her son's proud but also wanting to make him comfortable. "I mean, I know you will be alright in your chambers by yourself but one night here with your parents and your sister won't hurt. And I believe your father and I will be way more comfortable knowing you're here safe with us than alone in your bedchamber." As Mary finished speaking, another thunder echoed on the sky and both she and James jumped on their places.

"I guess I will stay here for the night." His cheeks turned into pink and Mary couldn't help but smile at him. Francis smiled to them and got up to fetch more pillows as Mary helped James and Anne into the bed. Soon, the prince and the princess made themselves comfortable between their parents and as Mary put the blankets over her small family, her heart melted at the sight of Anne's smile.

"Better now?" She asked and the small princess wrapped her arms around Mary's neck, soundly kissing her mother's cheek. Since she was a baby she understood how busy her parents were, being the King and Queen to France and Scotland, and the responsibilities her brother had being the heir to the throne of both countries, so she learned to enjoy every single moment she could with them.

"Yes. Thank you." Mary smiled as the rain got stronger outside of the castle's walls and the kids pulled the covers even closer to their chin. Francis extended his arm over their small frames and grabbed Mary's hands, holding it tightly as another thunder cut the sky.

"Are you afraid of thunders too, Maman?" James asked with a small voice, noticing the interaction between his parents. He idolized his parents, he dreamed with the day he would be a King just like his father, when he would sit in the big throne and people would look at him like they looked at his parents. With respect and proud. All things they had earned with hard work, as his grandmother Catherine had told him once. And because of that, he couldn't bear the idea of his mother afraid of something. She was indestructible, untouchable. She didn't need to fear a thing.

"Yes, I am, James." Mary replied with a small smile, noticing how Francis hid his laugh behind James' pillow. Both of the kids looked at her shocked, not believing in her. "I do not like it."

"But you Queen!" Anne was the first to answer, shooting her small arms up in the air, making Mary and Francis laugh.

"You're invincible, Maman! Why would you be afraid of thunders?" James was the one to ask this time.

"Being a Queen does not make me invincible, my sweet children." She smiled to them and Francis kept starring at her, hypnotized by the way she spoke with them. She had been born a Queen, but she had been born to be a mother. "I'm human, just like everyone and I'm afraid of a lot of things. Even of things that cannot hurt me, like thunders."

"Are you afwaid of othew things too?" Anne asked, her eyes big of concern.

"Yes, I am." Mary nodded, and caressed her rosy cheeks. "I'm afraid of spiders, of cockroaches and of your grandmother when she starts to yell words in Italian around the castle's hallways." Both Francis and the kids laughed, the image of Catherine de' Medici cursing in the unknown language imprinted on their head.

"I guess even Papa is afraid of grand-mére when she does that." James commented and Francis laughed, kissing his son's forehead.

"Not Papa, James." Anne turned to her older brother, who quickly looked at her, ready to pay attention on anything his sister had to say. "He's King, he's afwaid of nothing. He's vincible."

"Not even of spiders, I'm sure." James nodded at Anne and both Francis and Mary smiled to each other, enchanted with the interaction between their kids. They could see themselves so much in James and Anne, so much of their own childhood in James and Anne's adventures on the castle that they were never able to reprehend them when they ran away from their nurses or tutors or when they came back from the gardens with grass in their clothes and mud in their shoes, leaving a path of dirty wherever they walked. "I've seen him killing one once."

"Well, I'm not afraid of spiders, but I'm afraid of many other things too." Francis decided to interfere in the conversation. "I may look like I'm invincible sometimes because people rely on me and trust on me to do what's necessary for France and I need to show them I'm strong. But I'm also human. I'm afraid of things just like you and your Mother."

"So tell us what you are most afraid of." James challenged his father, blue eyes against blue eyes, but Francis could hear the same tone Mary used when they were children and she challenged him to break the rules his mother imposed to them.

"That's easy." Francis shook his head, poking James cheek and making him laugh. "My biggest fear of all is to lose you, your sister and your Mother."

"Aren't you afraid of losing the throne of France and Scotland?" James stared at his father.

"A little, yes." Francis nodded and lifted his face so he could see Mary, who watched her husband with such love and admiration she wasn't sure her heart could handle. "But being a King means nothing when compared to the satisfaction of being a good husband and a good father. Yours, your sister's and your mother's smile mean the world to me and that's why I tell you that when you are King and you have the right person by your side, love does not make you weaker, but stronger." James smiled, too young to fully understand the meaning of all the beautiful words his father had said but knowing that they were really important, as he even in such a young age had noticed how his father did the possible and the impossible to make his mother happy, different from all the men he saw in Court.

"Can we sleep now? I'm tired." Anne rubbed her eyes, tiredness taking over her body again and both Francis and Mary couldn't help but laugh at the innocence of their little girl. One day she would also understand what all of those words coming from her father meant, even though she wouldn't become a King. But right then she was just a tired little princess who clutched in her mother's nightgown as another thunder busted the sky.

"Yes, we can, my love. We all have a lot of things to do early in the morning." Mary replied, kissing Anne's and James' foreheads. Francis made sure his family was settled and covered, Anne in Mary's arms and James hand's clutched into his, hidden beneath the covers.

"Thank you, Papa." James whispered to Francis, his eyes already closed as he dazed off to sleep.

"You have nothing to thank me, boy." Francis replied as he looked up at Mary and smiled at her, as she mouthed a silently 'I love you'. The rain continued to fall outside of the castle and they didn't know when it was going to stop. Thunders continued to echo through the sky and they weren't sure of when it was going to stop either. The only thing the Queen and King of France and Scotland were sure was that James and Anne were safely tucked between them in their bed and in that moment, they shouldn't fear a thing.


End file.
